What to Do When You… Run Out of Thread

First of all: have you tried not running out of thread?

In our kits, we include almost double the amount of thread that Tiff needs to stitch the pattern. Even if you’re not as frugal (read: unnecessarily stingy) as Tiff in minimizing thread waste, you should have more than enough to finish your project, barring a big mistake.

Make sure you’re not accidentally using too much thread as you stitch. Our kits are designed to be stitched with 2 threads (out of the 6-thread strand), not doubled up. Watch this Instagram story for our best attempt at illustrating what we mean by that. 

If it’s too late and you’re going to (or already have) run out, you can: 

• Buy more thread. The colour numbers on our patterns are DMC colours, so hopefully you can find DMC at your local craft store or somewhere online! (We use DMC thread because it’s the most available to us here in Vancouver, Canada and not because we’re necessarily loyal or huge fans of the brand.
• Use a substitute colour. If you have some embroidery thread from another project or kicking around in your craft drawer, see if you have a colour that’s close enough! We’re not sure that we could tell the difference between DMC 816 and DMC 3685 even in good lighting, so if you can’t either, do it. We won’t (be able to) tell.
• Get creative. Maybe you ran out of black for the letters. Maybe you think that the “fucking” in “Merry fucking Christmas” [link: https://thebasicstitches.com/collections/christmas-kits/products/mini-kit-merry-f-cking-christmas-cross-stitch-ornament] should be in another colour anyway. Follow your heart.
• Ask us nicely for more via our contact page - we’ll send you some in the mail.